By Alberto Amalfi | @Tennis_Now | Monday, April 1, 2024
Dominic Thiem edged Maximilian Marterer 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4 to score his first win of 2024 and set up an Estoril second-rounder vs. Richard Gasquet.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Tough times don't deter Dominic Thiem.
A tenacious Thiem fended off Maximilian Marterer 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4 to earn his first Tour-level, main-draw victory of the season on the red clay of the Millennium Estoril Open.
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Thiem converted six of 12 break points in a gritty two hour, 14-minute triumph.
Wearing a white baseball cap, Thiem scampered under a lob and thumped a bounce smash to end the long-awaited win with a bang.
It is Thiem's first Tour-level win since he swept world No. 299 Matteo Martineau 6-4, 6-2 in Metz last November. Thiem said early preparation paid dividends.
“It was good. Also, the past two years I played here, I like the conditions,” Thiem said. “I came here early to prepare for the tournament and it paid off.
"It was a great match, a great first set. Second set, Max started to play way better and it became a very open match, a great battle. I’m really happy that it went my way in the end."
The victory vaults Thiem into what should be an entertaining showdown vs. fellow former Top 10 one-handed backhand wizard Richard Gasquet. Thiem is 3-2 lifetime vs. Gasquet, including a 6-1, 6-4 win in their lone clay clash in Monte-Carlo last April.
This season, Thiem won a pair of qualifying matches in Brisbane before bowing to Rafael Nadal 7-5,6-1 in his Brisbane opener. Thiem took Felix Auger-Aliassime to five sets at the Australian Open before losing.
The 2020 US Open champion shared in a social media post last month he's been working with his father, Wolfgang, and also felt some clicking in his injury-plagued wrist that prompted him to press pause on tournament play after "minor inflammation."
"As you all know, I started to practice again with my dad after the Australian Open to get back to the practice which made me really good. And so we started to practice like I did when I was younger with a lot of intensity,” Thiem said. “A lot of strokes. A lot of hours on the court.
"Unfortunately, a little bit before the challenger in Hungary the first tournament back for me, my wrist started to make some issues again, I started to have those clicks again, which bothered me also straight after I came back from the injury three years ago, and also this strange feeling came back and it turned into pain in the last weeks and there is a minor inflammation there.”
Hopefully, Thiem's wrist will hold up after a promising Estoril opener.